Attentional resources; the ability to pay attention to what we are being asked to do both socially and cognitively

Reduced processing resources are suggested to account for decline in WM

Deficits are profound in tasks which require high levels of concentration, wheras tasks that do not demand alot of attention, mainly unconscious, remain largely unaffected

WM tasks involve divided attention, therefore strain on the system may causes deficits

-ve, more descriptive than empirically based

-ve, attentional and processes resources are poorly defined

+ve, neurophysiological correlations (McDowd & Shaw, 2000),higher levels of cognitive arousal are shown for more cognitively demanding tasks whichhighlights that brain may have to work physically harder to complete difficult tasks. Patterns may be due to difficulty or due to attention required to complete task

-ve, disagreement on how long episodic memory are stored in hippocampus. Theyare hippocampul dependant, stored for a short time then transferred to the neocortex

Effortful Retreival

Certain types of memory are more difficult to retreive than others
e.g. recall memory is more difficult to retreive than recognition memory, meaning you are more likely to easily recognise someone than to remember specific details about them i.e. their name

LTM is hierarchial meaning that information stored in memory lower in the hierarchy is more difficult to retreivee.g. it is more difficult to retreive episodic memory as it is lower in the hierarchy (Conway, 2005)Those memories lower in the hierarchy require a more effortful search in order to retreive the information stored within them.

Speed of Processing (Craik & Jennings, 1992)

Cognitive processing speed is a measure of cognitive efficiency and proficiency

Measured using tasks that require little conscious thought, often automatic, easy and over-learned processes. A measure of how quickly older adults can do what is asked and how they act upon what is asked.

Age produces a general decline in speed of cognitive processinge.g. evidence is taken from mean response times, older adults response times are on average longer compared to younger adults completing the same task

PSYC306 - The Aging Brain

Attentional resources; the ability to pay attention to what we are being asked to do both socially and cognitively

Reduced processing resources are suggested to account for decline in WM

Deficits are profound in tasks which require high levels of concentration, wheras tasks that do not demand alot of attention, mainly unconscious, remain largely unaffected

WM tasks involve divided attention, therefore strain on the system may causes deficits

-ve, more descriptive than empirically based

-ve, attentional and processes resources are poorly defined

+ve, neurophysiological correlations (McDowd & Shaw, 2000),higher levels of cognitive arousal are shown for more cognitively demanding tasks whichhighlights that brain may have to work physically harder to complete difficult tasks. Patterns may be due to difficulty or due to attention required to complete task

-ve, disagreement on how long episodic memory are stored in hippocampus. Theyare hippocampul dependant, stored for a short time then transferred to the neocortex

Effortful Retreival

Certain types of memory are more difficult to retreive than others
e.g. recall memory is more difficult to retreive than recognition memory, meaning you are more likely to easily recognise someone than to remember specific details about them i.e. their name

LTM is hierarchial meaning that information stored in memory lower in the hierarchy is more difficult to retreivee.g. it is more difficult to retreive episodic memory as it is lower in the hierarchy (Conway, 2005)Those memories lower in the hierarchy require a more effortful search in order to retreive the information stored within them.

Speed of Processing (Craik & Jennings, 1992)

Cognitive processing speed is a measure of cognitive efficiency and proficiency

Measured using tasks that require little conscious thought, often automatic, easy and over-learned processes. A measure of how quickly older adults can do what is asked and how they act upon what is asked.

Age produces a general decline in speed of cognitive processinge.g. evidence is taken from mean response times, older adults response times are on average longer compared to younger adults completing the same task